Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

annoying.technology

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 178 posts

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#101

Post by mgkimsal »

nextos wrote: post #49
_qulr wrote: post #2

My workaround for this issue is to put Mail app in its own dedicated Space/Desktop. Then it only comes to the front in its own Space, not in the Space I'm normally using.

I've switched back to a new MacBook, temporarily due to COVID as it was easy to purchase from Apple and it was an emergency. I used OS X fulltime 2006-11. I'm surprised how buggy Catalina is, including Mail.app. I have had serious firmware issues too, such as needing to reset my SMC very frequently because my USB C stops charging the machine every other day. Apple is clearly, sadly, neglecting mac OS. Surprisingly, I…

if you really got a brand new one, the keyboard may not be as bad as the previous iterations (2016/2017)

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#102

Post by jtlowe »

defnotashton2 wrote: post #100

Reading the people that put up with it why? What's wrong with thunderbird?

I put up with it because I’ve used Mail for many years without issue until now. Fortunately for me it happens infrequently enough that it’s mildly irritating to me so far. Much less irritating than when I open my MacBook and receive dozens of iMessages at once along with their dings.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#103

Post by nextos »

mgkimsal wrote: post #101
nextos wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've switched back to a new MacBook, temporarily due to COVID as it was easy to purchase from Apple and it was an emergency. I used OS X fulltime 2006-11. I'm surprised how buggy Catalina is, including Mail.app. I have had serious firmware issues too, such as needing to reset my SMC very frequently because my USB C stops charging the machine every other day. Apple is clearly, sadly, neglecting mac OS. Surprisingly, I…

if you really got a brand new one, the keyboard may not be as bad as the previous iterations (2016/2017)

Yes, it's new and it's fairly decent. I love mechanical keyboards (especially those with ALPS and TOPRE switches), but I realize low travel means I type much faster and it doesn't tire my fingers.

IMHO the scissor keys in the Magic Keyboard are really good because they strike a perfect compromise in terms of depth, comfort and speed. Also the board is really low latency. Not sure what tricks Apple has played with the firmware in those keyboards.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#104

Post by addandsubtract »

evanelias wrote: post #98
vladharbuz wrote: post #55

I've had this issue for the past 2–3 years. It seems to happen because of improper error handling. If you look closely at the app in the instant it opens, your affected account will have a “disconnected” symbol next to it in the sidebar. However, it goes away before an error can be shown. My theory is: there is a momentary connection issue with these G Suite accounts, and Mail.app starts to show an error by focusing…

In my experience, if you always hide the Mail window (cmd-h) instead of closing it (cmd-w), it won't ever pop back up. Takes a while to retrain the muscle memory though! I haven't tested this in Catalina, but it definitely works consistently in Mojave.

This is what I've been doing to get "rid" of the error. Still on Mojave as well.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#105

Post by jeffbee »

hackandtrip wrote: post #36

It happens A LOT with non-GSuite Gmail accounts (personal GMail accounts) too!

There's no reason why it shouldn't affect all google mail accounts equally. If the cause is frontend disconnections, it will happen to any account tier.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#106

Post by deergomoo »

kahlonel wrote: post #84

I was a long time Gmail user, on the verge of leaving Gmail due to a long list of reasons. This bug was the final straw for me (I know it’s not Gmail’s fault). Got rid of Gmail completely. Haven’t seen this bug since.

I’m not sure why but Google services seem to cause a lot of issues on the Mac. I don’t use Google-based calendars anymore, but when I did, the accountsd process would often sit chewing absurd amounts of CPU for no discernible reason.

Same goes for this Mail issue, it only seems to happen with Gmail/G Suite accounts.

But yes, I am also looking to move away from Gmail; not because of this bug but because I don’t like the idea of all my important online accounts being tied to a company that has essentially zero customer service or support.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#107

Post by andyfleming »

jonpurdy wrote: post #92
theDoug wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is found in System Preferences > Mission Control. Uncheck the “Automatically rearrange spaces based on most recent use” box :)

Astounding to me that automatic rearranging would have been considered desirable. Hard to imagine that it’s just visual folks (like myself) who would lose flow state if the mental map of their Desktops was interrupted if they were suddenly rearranged.

I can see the line of thinking since it’s how command-tab works, but it’s just not a good fit for spaces/desktops. Similar to using multiple monitors, users expect to be able to rely on spatial reference. I didn’t use the feature either until I found that setting to turn off.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#108

Post by PunksATawnyFill »

defnotashton2 wrote: post #100

Reading the people that put up with it why? What's wrong with thunderbird?

Thunderbird sucks because, last time I checked, it had no way to copy or propagate filters between machines. Deal-breaker right there.

I’d be happy to hear that was fixed.

Meanwhile, SpamSieve makes Mail tolerable.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#109

Post by jpxw »

7ewis wrote: post #87

Something I still don't understand, similar to this - not sure if it's a bug or feature but I use Desktops heavily, especially while working at home without my extra monitors. For some reason, the order of my Desktops on Mac seem to reshuffle, I can't work out what causes it or when it happens. I often have it ordered something like this: Desktop 1 - Google Doc (Chrome) Desktop 2 - Researching (Chrome) Desktop 3 - Sl…

I have no idea why this is a default feature on OS X. It's one of the very rare moments where I think they've got a design decision totally wrong.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#110

Post by PunksATawnyFill »

threeseed wrote: post #32
chrisseaton wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your bug will at least then be triaged and acknowledged. Lol sure it will.

Bugreporter is just a front end for Radar. And I can assure that when I was working at Apple bugs were triaged and acknowledged by a PM. Doesn’t mean they get fixed though.

Radar’s asinine search functionality also obscures the seriousness of bugs by failing to reveal dupes.

It doesn’t (or at least didn’t) default to searching for all words used in the title; it only searches for the EXACT string you enter. It was a pain in the ass to even find bugs YOU wrote.

I couldn’t believe how goddamned dumb this is, or the Radar team’s response: Oh, you simply use Oracle syntax and wildcards in the title search! No explanation of how we were supposed to know this, or WHY.

Post reply on HN